Commitments And Contingencies commitment and contingency (Details)	3 Months Ended
	Apr. 02, 2017 USD ($) claims patents companies case claim	Jun. 30, 2013 USD ($) $ / products	Jul. 01, 2015 patent	Dec. 04, 2014 USD ($) $ / products	Sep. 14, 2010 patents
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Continued vesting period after termination without cause (in years)	1 year
Liabilities for executive's employment agreements	$ 0
Number of existing cases and proceedings that the Company currently believes are liking to have a material adverse effect on its financial position | claims	0
The future length the Company currently considered regarding existing cases and proceedings that are likely to have a material adverse effect on it (in months)	12 months
Liability for Director and Officer Indemnification Agreements	$ 0
Liability For Customers, Distributors, and Resellers Indemnification Agreements	$ 0
Reasonable and nondiscriminatory (RAND) royalty rate | $ / products		0.15
Estimated future RAND royalty rate 2018 through 2020 | $ / products		0.05
Ericsson v. NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of Patents Company Is Accused Of Infringing | patents					8
Foregone colleting verdict amount (in USD)				$ 3,600,000
Foregone reasonable and nondiscriminatory (RAND) royalty rate | $ / products				0.15
Chrismar Systems vs. NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of Patents Company Is Accused Of Infringing | patent			4
Number of active cases the suing company has | case	40
Realtime Data vs. NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of Patents Company Is Accused Of Infringing | patents	4
Magnacross vs NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of claims on U.S. patent 6917304 | claim	12
Vivato vs. NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of Patents Company Is Accused Of Infringing | patents	3
D-Link [Member] | Ericsson v. NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Loss Contingency, Damages Awarded, Value		$ 435,000
NETGEAR [Member] | Ericsson v. NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Loss Contingency, Damages Awarded, Value		3,555,000
Acer Gateway [Member] | Ericsson v. NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Loss Contingency, Damages Awarded, Value		1,170,000
Dell [Member] | Ericsson v. NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Loss Contingency, Damages Awarded, Value		1,920,000
Toshiba [Member] | Ericsson v. NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Loss Contingency, Damages Awarded, Value		2,445,000
Belkin [Member] | Ericsson v. NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Loss Contingency, Damages Awarded, Value		$ 600,000
April 12, 2017 [Member] | Magnacross vs NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of active cases the suing company has | companies	5
December 2016 [Member] | Magnacross vs NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of active cases the suing company has | companies	7
May 2016 [Member] | Magnacross vs NETGEAR [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of active cases the suing company has | companies	17
Chief Executive Officer [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of weeks for which salary is payable upon termination of employment without cause (in days)	365 days
Number of years after change of control to trigger full accelerated vest of unvested portion of stock options (in years)	1 year
Senior Vice President Of Worldwide Operations And Support [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of weeks for which salary is payable upon termination of employment without cause (in days)	273 days
Other Key Executives [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of weeks for which salary is payable upon termination of employment without cause (in days)	182 days
Maximum number of years covered by accelerated vest for other key executives if term without cause is within one year of change in control (in years)	2 years